Just Breath, Lean In and Jump for it!

Unless you have been living under a rock without access to tv, internet or other engaged human beings, you have no doubt a heard about Sheryl Sandberg's new book, Lean In.  From the devoted followers to the diligent detractors there are a lot of people talking about this book.  I guess it stands to reason that the COO of one of the largest social media platforms in the world would know how to create some buzz!

I first became a fan of Sheryl Sandberg about 2 years ago when I heard her 2010 TED talk, "Why There are So Few Women Leaders".  Her three key points were: (1) that you need to step up and sit at the table instead of volunteering to take seat in the back row, (2) pick a life partner who is a true partner and (3) don't leave before you leave.




Sheryl's new book, Lean In, follows the same theme but expands greatly on those key points.  I really liked her use of real facts and figures, as well as, examples from her own career to substantiate her points in the book. But the thing that most drew me in when I read the book was to hear Sheryl's confession that she often feels like a fraud and like someone is going to realize she doesn't belong.  I couldn't believe this extremely smart, well spoken and wildly successful Harvard grad turned corporate executive battles the same self-deprecating internal dialogue that I sometimes hear in my own head.  I have always assumed that really successful people (i.e. people higher up the food chain than me) feel, well, really successful.  Who knew many other successful women also have a tendency to sometimes "feel like a fraud" at work too??

It was Nelsen Mandela who said "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."  He was probably talking about facing challenges that are much more life threatening than life in the corporate world, but I think the principle applies here as well.  You have to find a way to overcome your fears if you want to succeed.  My new mantra these days - just breath, and lean in and then jump for it.  I repeat it to myself whenever I am doubtful I can do something.  So far all the leaning and jumping is serving me very well and I (surprise surprise!) I haven't fallen yet!!

So what about all the criticisms to this book?  Well, I think a book can be very valuable and inspiring even if not every single word in it speaks to your personal situation.  Take what works for you and leave the rest for someone else.

You do not have to aspire to a C-suite job or have the perfect life partner or even be able to afford a nanny to find something of value in this book.  Your version of leaning in might look different from Sheryl's plan for her life and that is ok.  Maybe your version of leaning in involves be just having more confidence in your abilities or seeking a board position for non-profit or starting to speak up more in front of your manager or teaching your daughter how to seek leadership roles in her extracurricular activities or teaching your son how to value leadership traits in the girls in his class.  There are lots of ways to lean in and seek a higher challenge.  It is up to you to pick the challenge that you want to take on - then just breath, lean in and jump for it!

Smart is the new Sexy - A Lesson in Brilliant Social Media Messaging by a Movie Star

Last weekend at the Teen Choice Award Ashton Kutcher surprised a lot folks when instead of giving the usual award acceptance speech he took his allotted 4 minutes and used it to deliver an important and meaningful speech to the teen audience.  This speech was absolutely brilliant on so many levels.  It is a great example of how to make an impact in the new reality of social media.



(1) Content is king.
No one can deny the content of Ashton's speech was inspiring.  He delivered 3 key points that any teenager needs to know and any parent would want shared.  Ashton's message was:

• Opportunity looks a lot like hard work.  
• Smart, thoughtful and generous are sexy.  
• You have to build your own life.

The brilliance here is that you have two audiences (parents and teens) sharing Ashton's speech.  The consequences of that are that Ashton's speech, his image and references to his upcoming movie are being posted and talked about everywhere this week which coincidentally times extremely well with all the paid Jobs movie promos that are being splashed across screens great and small.

Content is the place where I see people and brands trip up most when using social media.  This is not a space for excessively rerunning of your commercial or repeating product attributes over and over.  People come online looking for something interesting and relevant to them.  A gentle touch of brand messaging works only when it weaved into a broader appealing or provoking message.

(2) Targeting - know your audience.
What makes this speech really work is that Ashton carefully targeted his audience in the delivery.  He isn't preaching from the pulpit but sharing something personal (starting with his really name).  By sharing a secret he brings his audience mentally closer to him.  He puts a hook in the opening by telling the teens he is going to talk about being sexy but then flips the talk around to deliver his points. He even makes himself seem more real by sharing his work experiences in less than glamourous jobs before he became the movie star we know today.

The same principle applies to companies and brands as they connect with their audiences online.  In general people prefer to connect with a real human rather than a brand or corporation.  Let your humanity and personality show through the messaging.

(3) Brevity is essential.
Ashton delivered a big message in a small amount of time.  Just goes to show you no matter how much time you are allotted on the agenda you have time to make an impact.  Use time and space wisely, because succinct is always more impactful than rambling.

(4) Advertising should be minimal.
Right as Ashton delivers the 3rd point he slips in a very quick reference to his new Jobs movie.  This  marketing message is less than 5 seconds in a speech that lasts just over 4 minutes.  It is absolutely brilliant.  If Ashton had spent his 4 minutes talking about his new movie then only the people in the audience would have heard him.  No one would have been inspired to share a promo speech for his movie the next day.  However because his speech was 97% really good content and 3% marketing it went viral.  He definitely maximized his exposure as much as possible by not putting the advertising message ahead of the relevant content.

So it turns out that Ashton Kutcher is more than a pretty face.  He is a very smart marketer who could teach many brand managers a thing or two about how to deliver an impactful message.  On top of that he might just be a really good guy too.

Marketing for Impact in the Non-Profit Sector

I serve on the Board for STAR Foundation, a local non-profit that helps people move from subsidized living to self sufficiency.  I have loved the experience because it allows me to spend some time each month using my marketing talents to help others AND because it allows me to spend time with the two of the most loving and giving people I have ever met, Ellen Murphy and Katie Orrel, the sisters who are the heart of the organization.  The experience of serving on the STAR Foundation Board has made me think a lot about how we raise money to solve large social problems like poverty, oppression, childhood obesity and disease.

I recently saw a speech by Dan Pallotta on TED Talks titled The Way We Think About Charitable Giving is Dead Wrong.


Dan highlights 5 areas where he postulates that we over constrain non-profit's ability to maximum impact.
CEO Compensation
Marketing And Advertising
Taking Risks to Pursue New Donations
Time for Return on Investment
Profit to Attract Capital
He states that it is our resolute dedication to keep cost at a minimum has hampered our ability to raise money and make a real difference in tackling the biggest social problems facing our world.  If we freed ourselves to promote our non-profits with the same fervent vigor that we promote leading consumer brands and companies that we could substantially increase charitable giving and therefore the amount of money that is available to solve the world's biggest social problems.

It is an intriguing concept and at least directionally I would tend to agree.  It is not unlike the problem a manager in a public company can face when looking at how she wants to spend her marketing budget dollars.  Does she spend the money with a focus on the short term target numbers and therefore invest in things that offer a shorter and smaller ROI or does she put those budget moneys towards long range (multi-year) initiatives with a potential for much higher return but no contribution towards her current fiscal targets.  It can be a hard choice.  A savvy leadership team may be willing to accept that delay in gratification for the greater good but stockholders (like potential non-profit donors) may not be willing to keep the faith in the vision for long enough to see it come to fruition.

Me with two of the most beautiful souls I know, Ellen and Katie.

Mapping the Evolving Conversation Online

The online universe has exploded over the past 10 years and much like outer space, the universe online appears to be growing at a faster and faster rate.  With all this growth it can be hard for even the most dedicated marketing professionals to keep up with all the emerging new social properties and fading old stars as innovators build new platforms and fickle users switch their attention to the next new shiny object to catch their eyes.  So as with any journey into new and unfamiliar territory, what is need here is a good map!  Luckily Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas have devloped just such a map for us.

I came across The Conversation Prism a couple of weeks ago.  It is a beautiful kaleidoscopic view of the interactive media universe. It doesn't claim to be an exhaustive look at everything social, but it does provide an exceedingly comprehensive view.  I have found it very helpful in presentations on the changing vast landscape of interactive media.  It a great visual depiction of the large number of platforms out there beyond the basic 5 that everyone talks about (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn).  It is also a good reminder of how many existing online sites are evolving to add social components.

So now that you have a map why not go check some corner of the social universe where you haven't traveled before?  You never know what you might find there.

Imagine - Inspiring Creativity

There is nothing like the rush of a great creative thought when you know you have had a real moment of insight.  Like the runner's high a person gets after completing a long race, a creative epiphany can leave you tingling and flush all over with excitement.

Most people think creativity is something you are born with - you either have it or your don't.  I would argue that creativity is a skill most people had a child before school taught them that they had to color within the lines and circle the one and only right answer for each question.  The good news is: if you had it and lost then there is no reason you can't get it back again!  That is why I love really good books on creativity.  They can remind us what habits will help cultivate our creativity.

I thought Jonah Lehrer did an excellent job with Imagine.  This book made me want to immediately relocate my office to a bustling city, spend more time letting my mind wander in early morning drowsiness, establish more interactions with divergent people throughout my day and completely rethink how I structure brainstorming sessions at work just to be able to spark more of those fabulous remote associations that lead to creative epiphanies that will become elegant solutions to work projects!

Below are some of the key take-aways I got from Imagine.


Book Notes:

• Happiness promotes creativity. 
• Early morning drowsiness is a great time for insights.  Get up 10 minutes earlier to allow time to linger in that drowsy state before you get up and fully engaged.
• Day dreaming is associated with creativity - along as you don't get so lost in the day dream you don't take notice when the insight comes.
• Direct personal interaction is important!
• Increasing the number of office interactions/conversations will increase insights.
• Set up teams to have to physically interact - Seating the cross functional teams in close proximity will increase creativity because it increases the "coffee room chats".  Put the bathroom, break rooms etc in the middle so people have to bump into each other.
• Typical brainstorming sessions where "there are no bad ideas" are not effective.  You need that feedback loop about what doesn't work so well about a proposed idea so that people can add on and build until it becomes a great idea. (Pixar's idea of "plussing")
• Bigger cities (with the right rules) foster more creativity and productivity because people have to interact with each other more.  
• Creativity doesn't flourish in isolation. You need more loose associations rather than a few close ties to increase productivity.  The popular idea of the lone creative genius is more fiction than fact.
• Business people who cultivated large diverse social networks (lots of diverse weak ties) are much more creative and productive than people who socialize with a smaller close group of colleagues.
• Business should encourage interaction, dissent, conversation and social networks to most creative thinking and productivity.
• You want to create a multiplier culture.
• One of the brute realities of the creative process is that creativity is work!  You have to stick with it and work hard to be creative.  The single best predictor of success - grit!

I got a lot of fantastic ideas from this book for stepping up creativity on my team.  A few of them are easy like starting each big meeting with a funny video to spark creative thinking.  A few of them may take a little more effort to implement like wanting to relocate the bathrooms and break room to promote interaction. (Yes, the facilities manager is going to get a good chuckle over that one.)

I recommend Imagine if you are looking to jumpstart creativity for yourself or your team.